disseminate
Americanverb (used with object)
-
disseminates,
present (3rd person singular)
-
disseminated,
past participle, past
-
disseminating
present participle
verb
Usage
What does disseminate mean? To disseminate is to distribute, spread, broadcast, or disperse widely. The act or process of disseminating is dissemination. The word is especially used in reference to the distribution of information, or things that contain information, like files and documents. It is also associated with the official release of such information by organizations, such as a company that disseminates a press release or a government agency that disseminates information to the public. Example: Our chief media officer is responsible for disseminating press releases to various outlets.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
disseminatesimple
-
disseminatessimple
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have disseminatedperfect
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has disseminatedperfect
-
am disseminatingprogressive
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are disseminatingprogressive
-
is disseminatingprogressive
-
have been disseminatingperfect progressive
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has been disseminatingperfect progressive
Past
-
disseminatedsimple
-
had disseminatedperfect
-
was disseminatingprogressive
-
were disseminatingprogressive
-
had been disseminatingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of disseminate
First recorded in 1595–1605; from Latin dissēminātus (past participle of dissēmināre; dis- dis- 1 + sēmināre “to sow”), equivalent to dis- + sēmin- (stem of sēmen “seed”) + -ātus -ate 1
Explanation
Disseminate means to spread information, knowledge, opinions widely. Semin- derives from the Latin word for seed; the idea with disseminate is that information travels like seeds sown by a farmer. Think about a teacher distributing a hand out at the beginning of a class. The dis- of disseminate and distribute come from the same Latin prefix which means "apart, in a different direction." But unlike papers distributed in class, information, once spread around in all directions, cannot be pulled back in. Think about false rumors or political smear campaigns and you'll understand that dissemination is usually a one-way process.
Vocabulary lists containing disseminate
Hidden Figures
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Grade 11, List 5
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1984
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
"We urge the public not to disseminate related information, to reject cyberbullying, and to work together to create a good environment for the growth of minors," reads an official statement.
From BBC ● Jul. 22, 2026
Instead, the group recommends Yale adopt a leaner mission statement found in the Faculty Handbook: “Yale University’s mission is to create, disseminate, and preserve knowledge through research and teaching.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 15, 2026
In their open letter, the memorials called on social media platforms to "proactively combat AI content that distorts history" and to "exclude accounts that disseminate such content from all monetisation programmes".
From Barron's ● Jan. 27, 2026
In its lawsuit, ExxonMobil said the law would force it “to engage in granular conjecture about unknowable future developments and to publicly disseminate that speculation on its website.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 25, 2025
Although the Americans leave Manila in the hands of the Japanese—temporarily, at least—and the Propaganda Corps works tirelessly to disseminate their messages, the Imperial Japanese Army struggles in the first months of the occupation.
From "At Last She Stood" by Erin Entrada Kelly
The letter said that project was aimed at assessing how the Secret Service identifies, receives, disseminates and operationalizes intelligence concerning threats to the officials it protects.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 3, 2026
“If a city in a country wants to promote its tourism, its culture, that’s a very different thing from a paid advertisement that disseminates discriminatory messages,” she said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 21, 2025
The organization referenced by Mr. Jacobs is the Coalition to Abolish the Fur Trade, or CAFT, a group that selects targets and disseminates information and resources to anti-fur activists on the ground.
From New York Times ● Jun. 3, 2024
The brain puppeteers the hormone system, which disseminates chemical signals through the bloodstream, and those chemicals can spark a wide variety of biological responses.
From Slate ● Jun. 26, 2023
In March he sends Luther's theses to More, without comment, and, in passing, complains to Colet about the impudence with which Rome disseminates indulgences.
From Erasmus and the Age of Reformation by Johan Huizinga
Indonesian officials said they had issued warnings against climbing Mount Dukono which were widely disseminated through social media as well as on banners at trail entrances, but some hikers had ignored them.
From BBC ● May 8, 2026
The church denies that the aim of the lawsuit is to silence a popular maverick whose content is widely disseminated by critics of Mormonism.
From Salon ● Apr. 29, 2026
"So we do need better content that is disseminated through these platforms," he told a press conference.
From Barron's ● Apr. 24, 2026
“The preliminary cause of death was determined to be disseminated intravascular coagulopathy and snake envenomation from snake bites,” according to the Sheriff’s Office.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 21, 2026
Such a secret could not be widely disseminated, as there would be no point in making gold if everyone was at it.
From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton
The virus has been "rampant and silently disseminating for a few weeks already", she said.
From Barron's ● May 22, 2026
A U.A.E. official said disseminating inaccurate information can incite panic and cost lives in times of crisis.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 17, 2026
The filing does not mention Perez-Lugones disseminating the information.
From BBC ● Jan. 14, 2026
Our job is to determine whether someone was engaged in journalism and whether their work involved gathering and disseminating news and information.
From Slate ● Aug. 28, 2025
Thus the category ‘discovery’ proved to be capable of disseminating across the various local cultures of Renaissance Europe, but it did not fare well elsewhere.
From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
